The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-05-12
! ALMAGE7S SERMON.
Eloquent Discourse Concerning Good and
Bad LiteratuEs,

"Many of Them Also Which Used Curious
Arts Brought Their Books Together, and
Burned Them Before IL Men,
BROOKLYN, May L. At the tabernacle
this morning the pe" Jr, the Rev. L. De
Witt Talmage, d. D., expounded some OF
the Proverbs of Solomon. The congrega-
tion sang with magnificent effect the hymn
beginning;
Arm of the Lord, awake awakei
Put on thy strength, the nations shake.
( DR.. Talmnge took for his text Acts xix.
10: "Many of them also which used
curious arts brought their books together,
and burned them before all men; and they
counted the price of them, and found it
O,0O0 pieces of silver"
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus with
some lively sermons about the sins OF that
place. Among the more important results
was the fact that the citizens brought out
their bad books, and in public place made
q bonfire OF them. see the people COM
ing out with their arms full of Ephesian
literature, and tossing it into the flames.
hear an economist standing by and saying:
"Stop this waste. Here are $1,000 worth
of books-do you propose to burn them all
up2 If you don't want to read them your
selves, sell them, and let somebody else
read them" no." said the people, "if
these books are not good enough for us,
they are not good for anybody else, and we
shall stand and watch until the lastleaf has
turned to ashes. They have done us a
world of harm, and they shall never do
others HARM" Hear the flames crackle and
rear!
Well, my friends, one of the wants of
the cities of this country is great bonfire
Of bad books and newspapers. We have
enough fuel to make blaze 200 feet high.
Many of the publishing houses would do
we'll to throw into the blaze their entire
stock of goods. Bring forth the insutfer-
able trash and put it into the fire, and let it
be known, in the presence of God, and
angels, and men, that you are going to rid
your homes of the overtopping and under
lying curse Of profigate literature.
The printing press is the mightiest
agency on The earth for good and for evil.
The minister Of the Gospel, standing in a
pulpit, has a responsible position; but do
not think L is as responsible as the position
of an editor or a publisher, At what
distant point of time, at what far out cycle
of eternity will cease the influence of a
Henry j. Raymond, or a Horace Greeley,
or a james Cor ION Bennett, or a Watson
Webb, OF an Lraslus Brooks, or Thomas
Kinsela? Take the simple fact that our
New Ycr'i GH,;es now have circulation of
about SIS Zoo Ter day, and add to it the
fact that three of our weekly periodicals
have an aggregate circulation of about
1,0O0, On, nd then cipher, if you can, how
far up, and bow far down, and how far out
reach tie Influences of the American print
ing press. Great God, what is to be the
issue of ali this? | believe the Lord in
tends the prn ing press to be the chief
means for the worlds rescue and evange-
lization, and ! think that the great last
battle of tie world will not be fought with
swords and guns, but with types and
presses a urified and Gospel literature
triumVhing over, tramping down, and
crushing out forever that which is de-
praved, The only way to overcome unclean
literature is by scattering abroad that which
is healthtul. May God speed the cylinders
Of an honest, intelligent, aggressive,
Christian printing press.
have TO tell you this morning that the
greatest hlessing that ever came to this
nation is that of an elevated literature, and
the greatest scourge has been that of un-
clean literature. This last has its victims
in all occupations and departments. II
has helped to fill insane asylums, and
penitentiaries, and aims houses, and dens
Of shame. The bodies of this infection
lie in the hospitals and in the graves, while
their souls are being tossed over into lost
eternity, an avalanche of horror and de-
spair!
The London plague was nothing to it.
That counted its victims by thousands, but
this modern pest has already shoveled its
millions into the chaInel house of the
morally dead. The longest rail train that
ever ran over the Erie and Hudson tracks
was not long enough to carry the beastli-
ness and the putrefaction which have been
gathered up in bad books and newspapers
of this land in the last twenty years.
Now, it is amid such circumstances that
put this morning question of overmaster-
ing Importance to you and your families.
What books and newspapers shall we readf
You see group them together. A news
paper is only book in q swifter and more
portable shape, and the same rules which
will apply to book reading will apply to
newspaper reading. What shall we readi
Shall our minds be the receptacle of every
thing that IN author has mind to write:
Shall there be no distinction between the
tree of life and the tree of death? Shall
we stoop down and drink out of the trough
which the wickedness of men has filled
with pollution and shame? Shall we mire
in impurity and chase fantastic will 90 the
wisps across the swamps when we might
walk in the blooming gardens of God? Oh,
no! For the sake of our present and ever
lasting welfare we must make an intelli-
gent Christian choice. Standing as we do
chin deep in fictitious literature, the first
question that many of the young people
are asking me is; "Shall we read novels"
reply: There are novels that are pure,
good, Christian, elevnting TO the heart and
ennobling to the life. But l have still
rurther to say that 1 believe that ninety
nine out of 100 novels in this day are bale
full and destructive to the last degree.
pure work of fiction is history and poetry
combined 1t is q history of things around
us with the licenses and the assumed
names Of poetry, The world can never
paw the debt which Il owes to such fiction
writer's as Hawthorne and Mckenzie, and
Landon and Hunt, and Arthur and Marion
Harland, and others whose names are
familiar to all. The follies of high life
were never better exposed than by Miss
Edgeworth. The memories of the past
were never more faithfully embalmed than
in the writings of Walter Scott
Cooper's novels are BEAUTIFULLY redolent
with the breath of the seaweed and the
air of the American forest. Charles Kings
lev has smitten the morbidity of the world,
and led a great many to appreciate the
poetry Of sound health, strong muscles, and
fresh air. Thackeray did grand work in
caricaturing the pretenders to gentility ant
high blood Dickens has built his OWL
monument in his books, which are an ever
lasting plea for the poor and the anathemG
of injustice. Now, say, books like these
read at right times, and read in right pro-
portion with other books, cannot help but
be ennobling and purifying; but, alas fol
the loathsome and impure literature that